Category Archives: Scotland

UK coronavirus live: R number rises to between 1.2 and 1.5; new restrictions for Cardiff, Swansea and Llanelli

Posted on by

New infections in UK growing by 4% to 8% every day; measures to come into force in three areas in Wales this weekend; London placed on watchlist

A further 33 people who tested positive for coronavirus have died in hospital in England, bringing the total number of confirmed deaths reported in hospitals to 29,871, NHS England said on Friday.

The patients were aged between 56 and 93 and all except two, aged 84 and 88, had known underlying health conditions.

The mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, has called for financial support from the government for areas under extra restrictions.

At his weekly press conference, he told reporters:

These restrictions in our case have been in place for a number of weeks, getting on for seven to eight now, and they are having an impact on people’s lives but also on people’s jobs and people’s businesses.

There was not any compensatory support for many of those people announced yesterday and I think this is an unacceptable situation.

Continue reading...

Public not to blame for second wave of Covid-19, says Keir Starmer

Posted on by

Labour leader points to government mismanagement of virus in televised address

The public are not to blame for a resurgence of coronavirus and have been let down by the government, Keir Starmer has said in a televised address following the prime minister’s broadcast on Tuesday night.

The Labour leader’s remarks pointing the finger at government incompetence come in stark contrast to Boris Johnson’s address, where he appeared to suggest that “freedom-loving” Britons would be to blame if more draconian restrictions were applied.

Continue reading...

Covid: Sturgeon announces Scotland-wide ban on household visits

Posted on by

First minister also confirms 10pm curfew on pubs, bars and restaurants from Friday

Household visiting will be banned across Scotland, as Nicola Sturgeon moves to limit a key driver of coronavirus infections before the winter.

While Boris Johnson’s statement on Tuesday did not include direct limits on socialising, Scotland’s first minister said she would be extending nationwide from Friday the ban on household visiting already in place in the west of Scotland, where she said the limits were already having an impact on escalating infection rates.

Continue reading...

Scottish ministers considering strict new Covid rules, leak reveals

Posted on by

Local lockdowns in school holidays, travel restrictions and shutting hairdressers among possible measures

Scottish ministers are considering far-reaching restrictions to combat the surge in Covid cases including local lockdowns linked to school holidays next month, travel restrictions, closing play parks and shutting down hairdressers.

The measures were revealed in a leaked document marked “official sensitive”, which also shows the Scottish government could issue a “general message” that people should again stay at home accept for essential shopping and exercise and also avoid public transport.

Continue reading...

Brexit: Ed Miliband accuses Boris Johnson of ‘failure of governance’ in internal market debate – live

Posted on by

Former chancellor Sajid Javid becomes most senior Tory MP to say he cannot back bill in its current form

The politics live blog will be paused for now, thank you all for reading along so far. We may be back later as the debate continues.

Heald also expressed his unhappiness at the UK government claiming precedent for breaking international law.

He said:

Can I just also say that I was surprised to see this justified by the precedent, allegedly, of the Finance Act 2013 General Anti-Abuse Rule by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.

I was a law officer at the time, Dominic Grieve was attorney general. And one thing I can say about Dominic Grieve is that he was very correct and made sure that Government legislation did not offend the rule of law - he was extremely painstaking.

Continue reading...

Hunting in England exempt from ‘rule of six’ Covid-19 restrictions

Posted on by

List of exempt physical activities includes football, rugby, cricket and hockey among others

Grouse shooting and hunting with guns in England are among outdoor activities exempted from the government’s “rule of six” coronavirus regulations.

Confirmation that the latest health protection regulations permit groups of up to 30 to take part in any “sports gathering” was published only minutes before coming into force.

Continue reading...

300 years on, will thousands of women burned as witches finally get justice?

Posted on by

Lawyer seeks pardon for 2,500 Scots who were tortured and killed in ‘satanic panic’ begun by James VI

It spanned more than a century and a half, and resulted in about 2,500 people – the vast majority of them women – being burned at the stake, usually after prolonged torture. Remarkably, one of the driving forces behind Scotland’s “satanic panic” was no less than the king, James VI, whose treatise, Daemonologie, may have inspired the three witches in Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

Now, almost 300 years after the Witchcraft Act was repealed, a campaign has been launched for a pardon for those convicted, an apology to all those accused and a national memorial to be created.

Continue reading...

Government’s top legal advisers divided over move to override Brexit deal

Posted on by

Exclusive: Scottish advocate general warned of breach of ministerial code but two other advisers disagreed, letter shows

A behind–the–scenes rift has emerged between the government’s top legal advisers over the legality of the decision to bring legislation that overrides the EU withdrawal agreement.

Legal advice contained in a three–page letter marked “official – sensitive”, seen by the Guardian, summarises the legal opinions of the government’s three law officers, whose role includes ensuring ministers act in accordance with the law.

Continue reading...

Stonehaven train crash report calls for tighter heavy rain restrictions

Posted on by

Local route managers and signallers will be given more power to cut speeds or close lines

Heavy rain could lead to more trains being cancelled or told to travel at low speed in future, following the Stonehaven crash that killed three people in Aberdeenshire last month.

An interim report by Network Rail into the tragedy spelled out strengthened procedures that could hasten line closures in bad weather, pending safety inspections.

Continue reading...

Boris Johnson agrees to help father of Mercy Baguma’s child stay in UK

Posted on by

PM pressed to help resolve asylum application for child’s father, who is now the boy’s sole carer

Boris Johnson has agreed to intervene in the case of Mercy Baguma, who was found dead in a flat in Glasgow two weeks ago next to her distressed one-year-old son.

Johnson was pressed by the Scottish National party MP David Linden at prime minister’s questions on Wednesday to arrange an urgent meeting with the home secretary to resolve the asylum application that has been pending for the child’s father, who is now the boy’s sole carer.

Continue reading...

UK coronavirus live: English test and trace failed to reach third of contacts; Scotland R number ‘probably above 1’

Posted on by

News updates: just 69.4% of close contacts of people testing positive for Covid-19 reached; Nicola Sturgeon says Scottish R number could be as high as 1.4

Rachel Reeves, Labour’s Cabinet Office minister and an ally of Sir Keir Starmer, has rowed back on her earlier calls for Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard to “consider his position.” She made that suggestion in an interview this morning. (See 10.09am.) But in a tweet issued some hours later, Reeves reverted back to the normal protocol which prohibits Labour leaders at Westminster from commenting on Scottish Labour’s internal debates and problems.

As I said repeatedly this morning, matters about Scottish Labour are for Scottish Labour. Keir, Richard and the whole of the Labour Party are determined to rebuild trust in Scotland, and take on the SNP’s domestic record ahead of next year’s elections.

Some of the best journalism on the coronavirus crisis has come from BBC Radio 4’s More or Less, presented by Tim Harford. But Harford, like all of us, does occasionally make a mistake and, in an interesting Twitter thread starting here, he explains how he got it wrong when he said the risk of dying from Covid-19 was the same as the risk of dying from a bath.

1/ Time for an apology and a correction. Seems that every newspaper in the UK is (correctly) reporting that I said the risk of catching a fatal case of Covid-19 is about the same as the risk of having a bath. I did say that, but I was wrong. Details below.

3/ Now according to this piece – the author of which should be held blameless – the risk of taking a bath is about 1 in 3 million (0.3 micromorts). But that can’t be right. https://t.co/6DBj7rv97W

4/ The correct claim is that the risk of dying in the bath PER YEAR is 1 in 3 million – 20-30 deaths per year in a country of 67 million people. https://t.co/MSJ6eP7k6S

13/ Covid is a killer. It’s killed 65,000 people in the UK, including a dear friend of mine. Don’t let anyone tell you different. But the daily infection risk from Covid is now low. People shouldn’t be terrified to leave their own homes.

Continue reading...

Scotland announces local lockdowns and quarantine for arrivals from Greece

Posted on by

Household gatherings banned in three Greater Glasgow areas and travellers from Greece to self-isolate from Thursday

The Scottish government has announced a ban on household gatherings in three local authorities in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde area for the next two weeks and has imposed quarantine restrictions on people coming from Greece to Scotland from Thursday.

Nicola Sturgeon, said the localised restrictions – which come into force at midnight on Tuesday and will affect an estimated 800,000 people – apply to those living in West Dunbartonshire, Glasgow and East Renfrewshire, where infection rates have risen in recent days.

Continue reading...

Data on Covid care home deaths kept secret ‘to protect commercial interests’

Posted on by

Exclusive: English and Scottish regulators refuse to reveal homes with most fatalities

Covid-19 death tolls at individual care homes are being kept secret by regulators in part to protect providers’ commercial interests before a possible second coronavirus surge, the Guardian can reveal.

England’s Care Quality Commission (CQC) and the Care Inspectorate in Scotland are refusing to make public which homes or providers recorded the most fatalities amid fears it could undermine the UK’s care system, which relies on private operators.

Continue reading...

Scotland deficit rises to nearly £2,000 per person

Posted on by

Data showing fiscal deficit rose to £15bn in 2019-20 sparks row over case for independence

Scotland’s deficit has risen to nearly £2,000 per person after the gap between tax income and spending widened to become more than three times larger than the UK as a whole.

Data released on Wednesday showed Scotland’s fiscal deficit rose to £15bn in 2019-20, fuelling a row over the case for independence at first minister’s questions between Nicola Sturgeon and the Scottish Labour leader, Richard Leonard.

Continue reading...

Lockdown fears for Birmingham amid sharp rise in UK coronavirus cases

Posted on by

City sees ‘extremely concerning’ rise to 30 cases per 100,000 as positive tests in Britain hit highest level since mid-June

Police and officials in Birmingham have warned the public to act now to avert a city-wide lockdown as the number of people testing positive for coronavirus in England rose 27% in a week, hitting its highest level since mid-June.

The UK’s second city, which has a population of more than 1 million, has seen a rise to 30 cases per 100,000 up from 22.4 the week before and 12 at the start of the month, its director of public health said.

Continue reading...

Stonehaven tragedy highlights threat to rail from climate crisis

Posted on by

Fatal derailment after heavy rains exposes growing danger posed by extreme weather

The derailment of a ScotRail train in rural Aberdeenshire with the loss of three lives adds Stonehaven to a grim roll call of names, instantly identifiable with tragedy to those associated with the UK railway: the likes of Potters Bar, Hatfield and Grayrigg. It will be no consolation at all to those grieving lost colleagues, spouses and parents to know just how far apart such tragic events have lately become.

The last time a passenger died in a train crash in the UK was the Grayrigg derailment in 2007, when a Virgin high-speed train went down an embankment in Cumbria, miraculously with just one casualty. Before Wednesday, the last time a driver had been killed in a crash was in 2004; and the last disaster with multiple fatalities, Potters Bar, was as far back as 2002.

Continue reading...

Stonehaven: serious injuries reported after train derails in Aberdeenshire

Posted on by

Smoke seen billowing from track near flood-hit town amid reports of an engine fire

Emergency services have been called to a major train derailment near Stonehaven in Aberdeenshire, where smoke could be seen billowing from the track amid reports of an engine fire and serious injuries.

Four passenger carriages came off the track at Carmont, just west of Stonehaven, as a Scotrail high-speed train travelled from Aberdeen to Glasgow Queen Street.

Continue reading...

Sturgeon promises urgent review of 124,000 downgraded exam results

Posted on by

First minister apologises after predicted awards downgraded more heavily in poorer areas

Nicola Sturgeon has apologised to tens of thousands of Scottish teenagers whose exam results were downgraded last week and promised urgent changes to their awards.

The first minister attempted to defuse a growing crisis for her government by confirming that her deputy, John Swinney, would lay out proposals to regrade results in the Scottish parliament on Tuesday.

Continue reading...

Protesters march for fair pay for nurses and other NHS staff

Posted on by

More than 30 marches due on Saturday in recognition of work during coronavirus pandemic

Thousands of NHS workers have protested across the UK calling for fair pay for NHS staff and true recognition of their work during the pandemic.

More than 30 marches were planned on Saturday as anger grows about an absence of action to match gestures such as weekly applause for healthcare workers.

Continue reading...

Met Office issues amber health for potentially hottest day of year

Posted on by

Temperatures could reach up to 38C during string of very hot days, say forecasters

The UK could see record-breaking temperatures on Friday, with forecasters saying it could be the hottest day of the year. People are being warned to look out for older people, young children and those with underlying health conditions, as the UK prepares for the heatwave to continue through the weekend.

The Met Office issued the amber heat health warning, the second-highest available, on Thursday as it warned people to look out for each other and drink plenty of fluids, while avoiding excessive quantities of alcohol, to deal with temperatures that could rise as high as 38C (100F) in some places.

Continue reading...